A Heart That Heals
by NajlinkedHearts
Summary: The threat of Calamity looms on Hyrule's horizon, a poisoning cloud of omen that foretells demise should the defenders of Hylia's sacred land fail in their fated mission to protect it from the festering ancient malice. But despite these dark omens and the world being at stake, the Hylian Champion and Zora Princess manage to find serenity in each other.


White mist caressed pink and yellow lotus blooms, the thundering cascade spraying flecks of water on the skin and scale of the two Champions sitting upon a rock in the rippling pool. Link winced. A sting lanced the flesh hidden beneath his beige sleeve, the phantom of a Lynel's blade scathing his memory. The waterfall's breeze tousled his golden ponytail, but in spite of its refreshment, he clutched at his twinging arm, an action Mipha didn't overlook.

"Link, what's the matter with it?" she inquired, concern gleaming in her bronze gaze that latched onto the limb he gripped. "Are you hurt?"

"It's nothing," he brushed aside, a muffled murmur. These days his voice had fallen to a whispery echo of the piping one she once knew. Alas, she couldn't blame him for his newborn descent into silence, what with the ever-looming threat of Calamity on Hyrule's horizon, its burden crushing down on the young Hylian's shoulders. Yet, with a wistful heart she missed hearing his gleeful voice...

"May I?" The request was gentle, her palm outstretched and alit with a healing cyan sphere, and Link surrendered to it, relinquishing his arm to her delicate grasp. Sapphire eyes betrayed not a single emotion that swirled within him like a spiralling maelstrom as she rolled up his jade and orange patterned sleeve, revealing the wound he tried to conceal — a thin, scarlet slash snaking up his forearm, trickles of dried blood staining the skin around it. Mipha's orb enveloped the cut, and an undulating warmth permeated through Link's arm as its rippling light stitched his flesh back together.

"You're still the reckless child I knew not so long ago," the Zora princess remarked, tender amusement spreading across her lips in a smile. "Yet, you've grown in height since then." Link's slash sewn back to unblemished skin and its pain flushed out, her mystical gift extinguished. He flexed his newly mended arm and traced a finger over what had once been a crimson streak. The edges of his mouth quirked into the beginnings of a grin.

"Thank you," he managed to utter, slight vitality reincarnated in his voice.

"It is my pleasure," she replied. Their eyes met. By Nayru's name, every atom of her body screamed at her to look away, to stop the ruby flush that inflamed her cheeks each time she held his azure gaze a breath too long — but her eyes remained tethered to his ever-enchanting ones as she spoke, "Whatever comes of this Calamity, know that...I will always protect you. All your wounds, I will heal them, no matter how terrible." Link flinched at the mention of this dark abomination. His eyes lowered, their life sapped. Ten millenia's worth of hatred boiled in this beast of mythos, and once it awakened...all that festered wrath would clash with the sealing sword he wielded, and unless he proved himself victorious, everything would be lost. The kingdom, the Princess, his family, Mipha…

His eyes darted back to hers. Kismet commanded them to an unknown fate; Hylia only knew how soon that dreadful dawn would be, when the four Champions helmed their Divine Beasts and led the ancient army to seal the resurrected malice back to eternal slumber, the Princess and him facing its fury head on. But now, in this precious moment of spacetime, they sat in a quiet serenity, the rush of the falls drowning out the call of destiny and duty. In this moment, their fingers twined, fearful uncertainty fluttering through their veins. In this moment, Link leaned in closer to the Zora princess, whose heart quivered at his electrifying proximity.

"Mipha?"

"Yes, Link?"

"I…" His fair-skinned cheeks bloomed like crimson chrysanthemums. Words wilted on his tongue, and, without stealing another second of hesitation, he pressed his lips to hers, boundless affection and passion tangling in one tender gesture that left their pulses palpitating, worries melting.

"Link?" Shock swallowed Mipha. She must have dreamt that impulsive fantasy, there was no way by Nayru's grace he just _kissed_ her — but the ghost of sweet warmth on her lips told her with trembling certainty it was indeed reality.

He enfolded her in a tight embrace. Before the Calamity reawoke, before the battle to save Hyrule from apocalyptic demise broke out, he needed her to know what blossomed inside his chest — it fled his lips and quavered into her ears, unfettered: "I love you."

Bliss surged through Mipha's slender body at this heart-quaking confession. The words she heard him speak only in reverie now voiced to her aloud in the fondest of tones — she wrapped slim arms 'round his frame, whispering back the reply she never thought she'd get the chance to say, "I love you, too, Link."

Squeezing her closer, chin nuzzled into her shoulder, the Hylian and Zora's heartbeats pressed together for a fleeting eternity, one that veiled them in the soothing rush of the waterfall, one destined to become more than a mere fragment of memory.


End file.
